Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Facebook to Blame for Divorce Boom

NewsCorp Australian Papers

The dangers of social networking sites for the young are well documented, but increasing numbers of middle-aged users are also having their private lives thrown into turmoil by online activity.
Marriage counselors claim sites like Facebook are contributing to separations and divorce as bored 40 and 50-somethings try to reconnect with childhood sweethearts. British divorce firm Divorce-Online said Facebook was cited in one-fifth of the divorce petitions it processed last year, The Sunday Mail reports.
Australian Family Relationships Clearing House manager Elly Robinson said online behavior was causing friction in households.

"People will come in (for counseling) where one partner may deny their online behavior has been any sort of problem, but the issue is ... if it's upsetting one of those people in the relationship, it's a problem," she said.
Robinson said the lack of research on the effect of online behavior on relationships was surprising, considering the widespread use of social networking.

"Relationships develop more quickly online because inhibitions are lowered, it's easy to exchange information, people are online 24/7, there's an (endless) amount of people you can link up with who are there for the same reason, real life pressures fade away ... it's a bit of a fantasy world," she said.

Relationships Australia vice-president Anne Hollonds said while the Internet had made it easier to reconnect with lost loves, people ultimately had to take responsibility for their actions.
"The Internet doesn't make people have affairs.
"It's become the pathway of choice for many people but I don't think that means the Internet is breaking up families," she said.
"Everyone has some degree of fantasy about a love that might have been from the past and the technology now helps you find these people.
"But there's no evidence to suggest that had the technology not been available, you wouldn't have had an affair with someone else anyway."

While the fine wine and gourmet food exports that underpin the French food industry have been hit hard by the global crisis, the halal niche market has been growing fast.

The boom went largely unnoticed until a hamburger chain tried a halal menu in some of its restaurants, sparking charges of “communautarisme” — a term roughly meaning “ghettoization”,
which grates against the French insistence on integration.

The growth of halal products is largely thanks to young descendants of Arab and African migrants, who want to enjoy the same culinary diversity as their non-Muslim French neighbours while remaining true to their cultural roots.

“It’s mostly driven by the second and third generations,” said Antoine Bonnel, director of the Paris Halal trade show held this week.

“It’s not a case of the Muslim community withdrawing into itself, but rather one of integration, since they want to be able to buy halal sauerkraut or spring rolls,” he said.

Bonnel was referring to the increasing number of Muslims joining the French middle classes and expanding their culinary horizons, a trend that has even spawned a new term — “beurgeois”, a slightly ironic mix of “bourgeois”, or middle class, and “beur”, slang for North African.

French sales of halal food are forecast to hit 5.5 billion euros (7.42 billion dollars) in 2010 and move “from the ethnic market to the mass market”, said Bonnel.

The word halal — meaning “lawful” in Arabic — applies to food that has been prepared according to the prescriptions of the Koran.

Islamic law requires meat to be slaughtered under religious supervision and forbids the consumption of pork and alcohol.

Supermarket chain Casino has created a halal brand, Wassila, and fast food chain Quick is trying out a halal menu in eight of its 350 burger joints.

But the increased presence of halal in French life has raised some hackles in this staunchly secular country.

Several politicians from both right and left have complained that providing halal options will divide French society rather than help welcome Muslims into the culinary mainstream.

Quick’s introduction of halal options in some areas with Muslim populations was attacked by a mayor from the opposition Socialist party, who threatened legal action, and by members of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s own ruling right-wing UMP party.

“I am not in favour of anything that smacks of communitarianism,” said UMP party leader Xavier Bertrand.

No-one at the Halal Expo agreed with their concerns.

“There are already kosher products and sections for world foods in the supermarkets - why not halal?” asked Anisa Bouarbi of Paris Hallal, a firm which lists restaurants online for a young smartphone-equipped audience.

“Discrimination means not allowing people to follow their tastes.”

Around her in the exhibition hall, the products on show seemed to support the view that the burgeoning market is encouraging Muslims to eat and drink the same products as other French people, just in halal form.

Halal is also providing fresh business for French businesses.

Christine Darcon, director of Corico, which produces the turkey often used to replace pork in halal versions of European dishes, said that her company was simply supplying “a clientele which is asking for specific products”.

“Halal is on the way to outselling organic products in the supermarkets,” boasted Hakan Cetin, sales manager of Oz Pa, which produces gelatin free halal sweets and biscuits.

He and his colleagues feel that the politicians’ concerns will evaporate, as firms rush into the growing market segment, and the only problem they foresee is the lack of a unified halal certification scheme.

Manufacturers currently use a wide variety of organisations to establish their credentials, or even certify their products as halal themselves. This has led to consumer demand for a single halal stamp of approval. - AFP